BREAKING NEWS: STO to be Free-to-Play by year end

SiranNataan - Good question. No idea. Might lose access to one of your characters until you buy an additional slot or go Gold. Highly doubt it'll be deleted.

Aym - I guess I understand the concept, and I guess if the existing content will provide enough gameplay for 25-50, might finally give me a reason to roll a Klingon. Interesting that all of the "early" level ships are essentially drydrocked until they add content to decrease the starting level.

I'm almost afraid to look at the STO forums. I'm all but certain to see countless "locked" threads in the Dev Digest now.

SiranNataan - From the STO FAQ:

Q: If I decide to downgrade from Gold to Silver, what happens to all my stuff?

Characters will remain when switching from Gold to Silver. However, players will not be able to play them until either they re-upgrade to Gold or convert them individually into Silver characters in-game. The exact conversion process is still being determined. Please note that we never delete character data. If a Gold Member cancels his or her subscription and decides to restart it at a later date, all of that Member's characters and associated items will be intact.

As a Lifetime subscriber, I'm pretty happy with this. I just hope that 'Promotional points' is just another name for C-store points, and it isn't a different type of currency that is severely gimped.

I am mainly concerned in how the new currency system will work with buying ships. It may still need so much dilithium to buy one that you need to spend C-points to get enough from other players.

On the C-point note I also hope that the 400 'Promotional' points are not just that. Promotional screams 'for a limited time only' in my eyes.

I guess I'm most interested in the currency side of things too. I intend to keep my subscription so I hope the monthly stipend is cstore points or whatever equivalent it might become. Also keen to see how the in-game currencies get streamlined overall cos I think there's far too many of them to keep track of easily. Why can you buy some things with energy credits, others with merits, yet others with badges and yet others with emblems?

The 'promotional point' are Cryptic Points and they don't expire. You can use them on anything in the C-Store and, if you don't use them, they'll slowly build up.

But I think 400 Cryptic points is pittance. I think that Lifetime members should get more then 400 Cryptic points a month. If I wanted to be the Guramaba class starship, it'd take me 5 months to save up the points! I don't see us getting anything more than the monthly subscribers get.

Locking the Klingon content is rather bothersome. That's gonna really piss of some Klingon players. But if I get to start them at level 25, it won't be such a grind to get them to BG1.

I'm interested to see the new currency system, Dilithium. There for a minute I thought that was going to include Energy Credits as well and I was all "Hello no!". But I've been an advocate of getting ride of all the marks, emblems and badges for a long time.

I may be way off base here, but they may simply be calling them "promotional points" because they haven't settled on a name yet. For all we know, Perfect World wants to incorporate the C-Points into their own universal currency (a la Atari Points) and there hasn't been settlement on what that will be called yet.

They are being called "promotional points" because they are not your typical C-store points that can be used in any Cryptic game, they are strictly for STO :)

Quote by NicholasJohn16

But I think 400 Cryptic points is pittance. I think that Lifetime members should get more then 400 Cryptic points a month.

I agree that compared to the price of buying the Cryptic Points 400 seems SO low. But since that's what they give out on Champions I assume there's no chance of that changing.

I gotta be honest though, I know some people paid quite a lot in one go for their lifetime subscriptions, but as a monthly subscriber I have now [or am extremely close to have] paid more than anyone who bought the lifetime sub, and as time goes on I will steadily continue to increasingly exceed Lifetime Subscribers' investment. So now the game's been out for this long, I think anyone who bought the LS should pat themselves on the back for being able to drop enough cash in one payment to get themselves a bargain. But LS owners definitely do not deserve more than monthly subscribers.

Quote by PjhN

So now the game's been out for this long, I think anyone who bought the LS should pat themselves on the back for being able to drop enough cash in one payment to get themselves a bargain. But LS owners definitely do not deserve more than monthly subscribers.

Speaking as a lifetime subscriber, I agree. I bought the sub before launch, and it is the equivalent of 16 months of month to month subscription, so right now (even though I'm not playing) I've got a free ride in STO, so I can't even begin to think that I should get more points per month. Previous to my 16 month equiv, yes, as I laid down a pretty heavy start up investment; but not now, no.

Quote by Angelsilhouette

Quote by PjhN

So now the game's been out for this long, I think anyone who bought the LS should pat themselves on the back for being able to drop enough cash in one payment to get themselves a bargain. But LS owners definitely do not deserve more than monthly subscribers.

Speaking as a lifetime subscriber, I agree. I bought the sub before launch, and it is the equivalent of 16 months of month to month subscription, so right now (even though I'm not playing) I've got a free ride in STO, so I can't even begin to think that I should get more points per month. Previous to my 16 month equiv, yes, as I laid down a pretty heavy start up investment; but not now, no.

It is just me or do people assume that if you've got Lifetime, that you got it when the game came out. I got it just a few months ago, still haven't broken even, and though I'm staying optimistic, I can't help but be nervous that I threw my money away.

As a lifetime subscriber from the very beginning (beta), I do agree that the kids that have been paying monthly for ALL this time probably are deserving of more than the casual on-and-off players. Isn't that what the Veteran Rewards are for?

I have to believe that those that have been with the game from the very beginning are first and foremost in the minds of Cryptic.

Ultimately, for what I've paid for (LTS, many many many C-Store points), I have a sense of knowing that I've thoroughly enjoyed playing (and plan to continue playing); have made some wonderful friends that otherwise I never would have; and have essentially lived a fantastic Trek gaming experience that beats out the 20+ years of Trek games (well, except for maybe A Final Unity; but that was amazing stuff!). Certainly, vastly exceeds dropping $50 on platform games that I'm bored with after a week.

Maybe this will expand our fleet? An exciting prospect, to be sure.

So any information on what Lifers get from all of this?

Quote by ForSix

So any information on what Lifers get from all of this?

Yes... CLICK HERE for F2P Details Matrix

=/=

I do believe lifetime subs will still get the monthly stipend of cryptic points as it's been done on CO. so while it may take longer for the sub to pay off, there still is a finite point the LS pays for itself.

That being said I will be the first to admit i was a bit zealous in my preorder perks and now those are up on the C-store and given enough time I could have waited and gotten those later. I don't regret it (even having been a year) because after patching I could jump right back into play and had everything I wanted/needed.

I'm not going to complain too much about 400 pts/month. It's like getting a couple new costumes a month. :D There's also the possibility that prices on items will drop. That seems to the be the opinion of people who've seen other MMOs that transition to F2P.

However, I disagree with the assessment that LTS members shouldn't get anything more than monthly. First, there's the fact that there are some LTS people who recently bought them. Second, LTSers, even those who bought early and have broken even, demonstrated exceptional goodwill toward Cryptic and provided them with an incredibly useful infusion of capital that likely helped fund much of this game's early post-launch development. Additionally, given that investment, it stands to reason that LTSers make up a significant portion of the game's strongest support. Keeping them happy by giving them a little more will go a long way in maintaining the game's audience as it goes F2P.

This is why someone from Marketing should be slapping the CFO upside his head for spilling the beans too early...but, it seems that Cryptic was able to respond fairly quickly to the "announcement" with press releases and the F2P matrix. :side:

I'll say this, given my mmo hopping experience: lifers are great for up-front development but ultimately hurt the game in the long run. as a lifer cryptic is actively giving ME $5 each month for no investment from me in return (aside from logging in). I would speculate that there is code in the account management engine to make sure lifer accounts have logged in within that month to get the stipend, because I'm not swimming in free money from my CO account (which is sadly collecting dust).

Another side to this is that Paragon Studios (development team for city of heroes/villains, going rogue) have announced they will not ever do a lifetime sub based on anecdotal accounts from other studios all saying it was a bad idea, and at the loss of $5 per active lifer per month offset now only by the people paying for gold I easily see how that math could tank an already risky asset for a publisher. I'm happy to get my $5 (possibly $10 if I can work the mechanism for CO too) per month to play with.

oh and to the guys concerned about character slots: if you purchased the slot through the c-store at any time they will not revoke access to that character since you have already purchased him/her/it.

Not sure why people are being critical of Lifers since both Lifers and Subbers are going to be needed as of Sept 22nd to make the new economy work after all high demand and low supply makes high prices. By this I mean we will have lots of Dilithium and very few CP's if any.

They are changing things so most decent gear and a few ships are being bought for Dilithium, likely large amounts of, and this means that those with high end toons are going to need a fair amount. The Freepers on the other hand will likely be wanting CP points to buy basic upgrades, such as Boff slots and inventory slots, and so will farm Dilithium and just need somebody willing to sell CP's to them. A Freeper is not likely to sell so that just leaves those who are lifers and possibly subbers.

Lifers and subbers are being given a stipend of 400 points per month which lets face it is not going to buy a ship anytime soon, so chances are they are going to be the folks fueling the market and keeping Freepers interested. It is the very fact that these have not been bought directly which makes them more likely to be inclined to trade them away.

My conclusion is that by doing this they turn lifers into a potential asset and not a liability as suggested as they then serve an essential purpose. A dead market would otherwise put off many potential players and the fact they will be acclimatised to the store will encourage them to buy points even if only in small amounts at a time.